SUNDERLAND: Borini and Lens guaranteed to leave in summer - but Khazri and Djilobodji set to return to Wearside

FABIO BORINI and Jeremain Lens are guaranteed to leave Sunderland in the summer after triggering the clauses in their current loan deals that force their temporary employers to buy them permanently.

However, Wahbi Khazri and Papy Djilobodji are both set to return to Wearside at the end of the season, even though the Black Cats are paying €140,000-a-month in wages to keep them away from the Stadium of Light during the current campaign.

Borini joined AC Milan in the summer, and only needed to make a handful of senior appearances to trigger a permanent switch. As it happens, the 26-year-old has made 15 Serie A starts, with a further four substitute appearances, although he is still awaiting his first AC Milan goal.

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Lens moved to Besiktas in the close season, having spent most of the previous campaign with Turkish side Fenerbahce, and the Dutchman’s 13 Super Lig appearances mean he will make a full-time switch to Istanbul in June.

Sunderland officials will be relieved to see the back of both players, with their exits set to result in a much-needed financial windfall. Besiktas have already paid Sunderland a €1.5m loan fee for Lens, and are now committed to come up with an additional €4m in the summer. AC Milan are understood to have paid an advance of £1m for Borini in the form of a loan fee, with his total transfer set to be worth a figure of £5.3m that was agreed last summer.

Sunderland’s most recent accounts revealed a total debt of more than £100m, and with Ellis Short still determined to sell, this summer’s transfer income could be the difference between sustainability and financial meltdown, especially if Chris Coleman is unable to keep the club in the Championship in the next three months.

Ideally, the Black Cats also need to remove Khazri and Djilobodji from their books on a permanent basis, but neither player has an automatic clause as part of their loan deal and sources in France claim both are likely to return to Wearside in the summer.

Khazri is playing with Rennes, while Djilobodji signed a loan deal with FCO Dijon, but neither has been especially impressive this season. And even if their current employers wanted to keep them permanently, they would struggle to pay the wages that the duo are currently earning.

French newspaper, L’Equipe, has released the wage details of a number of players which were obtained via a Freedom of Information request across the Channel, and they reveal that Sunderland are paying €40,000-a-month towards Khazri’s wages, which equates to 22 per cent of the winger’s total salary.

The Black Cats are paying even more towards Djilobodji’s loan, as they are shelling out around €100,000-a-month to the defender, which equates to more than 60 per cent of his total deal.

The agreements still mean that Sunderland are saving money, although they perhaps explain why the budget available to Coleman and Simon Grayson in the last two transfer windows has been so limited.

That said, however, Sunderland are understood to have similar arrangements in places for some of their own loan players, with the parent club paying a significant proportion of the player’s wage while he is part of the squad at the Stadium of Light.

Sunderland’s starting line-up against Ipswich at the weekend contained four loan players, with a fifth, Kazenga LuaLua, coming off the substitutes’ bench.

The Black Cats’ defeat last Saturday was their 15th of the campaign, with Coleman being especially critical of his side’s failure to trouble their opponents from their numerous set-pieces.

Sunderland forced 11 corners against Mick McCarthy’s side, but Bryan Oviedo’s delivery was often dreadful and despite having a number of players in the box, the Black Cats failed to threaten the Ipswich goal.

Coleman accepts that is a problem, and will be focusing on attacking set-pieces on the training ground ahead of Saturday’s trip to Bristol City.

“Where do I start with the set-pieces,” said the Sunderland boss. “There’s an incident right at the end (of the Ipswich game) where we have a set play. Sheasy (John O’Shea) wins a header and it bounces. If we really react to it, we get a shot at goal. It’s the first phase and we’re not thinking about the second phase - Ipswich were. That’s what I’m talking about, although maybe that will come with experience.

“Bryan was taking the deliveries - he’d been sharing it with George (Honeyman) – and he was hit and miss, but in fairness to him, when he does put it in the right areas, we don’t win the first one enough, don’t win the second one enough, and straight away we’re defending.

“We may as well keep five back, put a couple in the box, take a short corner and play for time, but for me a set play is a chance to score a goal. You can send one body up and if you deliver the ball into the right area, and that one person really wants to go and win it, he can. I’ve seen that many times. But if you’re not really going for it, you’re never going to get it.

“To be fair, John got on the end of one in the first half and another one in the second half which bounced. But with anyone else, we don’t look like we’re going to win that first challenge.”

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